It’s no news that Google is capable of indexing source code files. Any simple search can confirm that.
In an interview with Forbes last week, Google shared that their search functionality is now capable of not only indexing JavaScript source files, but understanding some of them as well.
This is interesting for a couple of reasons. More after the jump!
This Matters Because…?
Back in the 90’s, JavaScript used to be seen as the black sheep of programming languages.
But with the role that JavaScript is now playing in the development of web applications, it would stand to reason there are advantages to focusing on it.
Specifically, in being able to not only see but actually understand and execute programs living on the web, Google would effectively be able to not only view the web through a different perspective but do things that no other engine is currently doing.
This would be a game-changer in the search engine industry.
Machine Learning
Personally, I find this fascinating for two reasons.
First, this is the core of computer science – computer programs understanding other computer programs. This is something that’s very hard to do.
Secondly, as the functionality becomes more mature, you’ve actually got machines understanding – at least, to some degree – what other machines are doing. Straight up artificial intelligence.
Why I Like This
Perhaps the biggest reason this is intriguing to me has nothing to do with the difficulty of the classic computer science problems being explored here, but it’s the language Google is going after.
JavaScript is a dynamically-typed, interpreted language. This means that, in some cases, there can be little certainty what a program is actually going to be doing until runtime. So Google being able to index, understand, and execute actual applications written in the language is pretty incredible.
Definitely excited to see what this looks like within the next couple of years.
Thoughts?
Speak your mind...